Why Do Weddings Cost So Much?

I’m sure this post is going to go over well for hopeful twenty and thirty-somethings who dream of their fairytale wedding. Perhaps that’s why my husband and I haven’t been invited to one in over a decade. But then again, we aren’t at that point in our lives where friends are getting married. We’re at that point where everyone’s divorcing. Did I mention this is an optimistic post?

The “Shower”

I love how we have a shower for someone that’s been living with someone for a decade. What could you possibly need at this point?

The Bachelorette Party

This can range from a stripper at the local Knights Inn to a weekend in Las Vegas. The fact that some women expect their friends (key word there) to spend money on a night to act like complete hoes is beyond me. It’s on par with female adult Halloween costumes. Your either a hoe or you aren’t; don’t pay extra for one night to convey it.

The Rehearsal Dinner

Well, it’s not enough that we’ve secured tomorrow’s dinner at the golf club at $39.95 per person and there are 180 attendees. Let’s throw another party beforehand, have dinner at a place our parents can’t afford, all in the name to distribute my tacky-ass Things Remembered bridal party gifts.

The Bridal Party

There is a rival out there of the bridezilla and that’s the oblivious bride. The oblivious bride is certain money grows on trees and expects all of her bridesmaids to prune theirs.

When I hear how much some bridesmaids dresses are these days, I nearly fall off my chair.

“But at least you can wear it again.” Is what I’ve heard before about bridesmaid dresses. I want to be like, “bitch, I’m not having dinner with the Queen. I’ll never wear this thing again.”

In my mind, and I know I’m going to offend on this, there’s nothing more insulting when you spend $300 on a bridesmaid dress and your bridal party “gift” from the bride is the costume jewelry you are to wear at the wedding. Again, not having dinner with the queen so I’ll have zero opportunity to wear this diamonique bib necklace anywhere. Your gift is null and void.

The Gift

I love that by the time the wedding rolls around, all the “cheap but seems expensive” gifts have been taken. Your left deciding between the king size comforter made of baby skin for $300 or the elephant tusk hutch at $3,000. Apparently, the bride and groom invited millionaires to the party.

Photography

Nothing gets my goat more when you have just sat through a God damn Catholic wedding at noon, you’re starving and you have to wait for the bride and groom to take 75 pictures with every single member of the family, including the dentist.

I just Googled the average cost of wedding photography and do you know what that bitch just told me? The average cost of wedding photography is between $2,500 and $10,000. $10,000 for pictures? Are you kidding me? For 10K, the photographer better accompany us on the honeymoon and have pics of us brushing our teeth.

Catering

Look, I don’t know what the answer is with feeding all your guests. While I’m not suggesting pizza and punch that comes out of a Gatorade dispenser, I think $40 per person is ridiculous ($41 is the U.S. average). For $40 per person, I could buy everyone’s dinner (sans alcohol) at Ruth Chris Steakhouse. And I love me some steak!

Look, I won’t go on and on about the cost of weddings. And when my sons marry, we will pay for the items we are traditionally responsible for unless they become millionaires. Then their on their own.

My friend had her wedding for $500 lol I’m definitely not going to have an expensive wedding if I ever get married. Small and simple! You’ll be invited, of course! But other than you, my folks, and my man, who needs anyone else? ?

Aww…thanks! I would love to come to your wedding! It would give me a great excuse to get a passport and visit Canada. $500? And I think your currency is more than ours so maybe in the states that could be like $400? Amazing!

The internet says today that $500 Canadian is $375 US? That seems like I went to the wrong site…that’s a big difference…but it could be right… idk lol and it is amazing! She had a little bit of an unconventional wedding but that’s ok! It suited her!

I did not have a shower. My bachelorette weekend was a girls trip spent at a local AirBnb with a pool and lots of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake and alcohol. Our rehearsal dinner was at Five Guys (a burger chain if you’re not familiar). We didn’t have a bridal party. We asked for cash we could spend on the honeymoon (any amount was appreciated). We paid $1,500 for our photographer and $1,700 on a videographer and we’re so happy with the end results from both. We ordered enough food for 30 (we only had 18 guests show up) and spent about $2,400, but that also included apps, cake/cupcakes, 3 waitstaff and a bartender.

All in all, we spent about $12,000 on our tiny wedding and wouldn’t change a thing about it. 🙂 As for your sons getting married, good luck with that! I’m sure weddings are only going to get more expensive as the years pass.

First let me say I would roll around in 5 Guys burgers if I could. There is one about 10 miles from my house. Love it. Good for you for having a small wedding and not inviting the bagger at your grocery store. You are the picture perfect example of what weddings have gotten away from and what they should be. It’s just throwing money away! And from the pictures I saw, your wedding was lovely!

Dude, you should have joined us for our wedding. You’d’ve loved it! We got married in a barn (it was an ancient black barn that we had to spend 4 weekends cleaning…) But that meant we could just spend our budget on yummy food and drink for everyone.

In the UK most people don’t both with bridal showers, or rehearsal dinners. So the cost for guests is just getting to the venue on the day…and maybe staying overnight if they can’t make it home.

Lastly, doesn’t the bride normally buy the dresses and shoes for her bridesmaids? I’d feel weird asking my besties to shell out for that when they are coming out to support me.

I would have loved that! And I forgot all about how your name for a bachelorette party. Ha! So let me get this straight, in the UK, the bride pays for the bridesmaid dresses? That’s amazing! Not in the U.S. usually. We ask our bridesmaids to fork it over on there own! Dress, shoes, accessories, all of it! On top of that, the shower, the bacherlorette party and traveling. Can you believe that? I like the U.K. way much better!

Hello! My name is Angela (aka Hot Mess) and welcome to Hot Mess Memoir, a blog for the perfectly imperfect! Grab a glass of wine and let's discuss bad parenting, the things our kids do that makes us crazy, annoying people and everything that makes us shake our head!